Southeast PA town map

[Keystone Phil]

Wow! Great job and welcome to the forum! It's great to see another PA Republican on board (especially someone with such an understanding of the SE). I'm a Philly Republican and if you read my posts, you'll be able to tell that I'm pretty invovled/interested in politics around here. 

Lower Moreland, the home of Valerie Plame, Nancy Spungen and Terri Schiavio (I kid you not!)

I knew about Schiavo but didn't know about Plame. I don't know the other person either.

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A weird little community, too. I'm shocked that they went for Bush (and with nearly 70% of the vote). I always thought of Bryn Athyn as a white, upper class, far left wing haven. I'm surprised Obama didn't win it by more.

[Keystone Phil]

Did anybody ever make a precinct map (raw returns or swing) of city of Philly? It'd be interesting given the level of discussion before the election.

Ugh. That would be so hard to do. I guess someone with access to the forum's precinct data could do it with relative ease (compared to getting results from our City Commissioners). I'd be very interested in seeing the results (especially swings) though I have a pretty good idea where to expect Obama/McCain wins and/or swings.

[Keystone Phil]

Great work, Nordstrand. What is the Kerry-McCain township in MontCo that borders Philly?

Living fairly close to there one explanation I have is a fair number of well off white blue collar workers from the city moved there swinging it towards McCain.  It also explains some of the lower Bucks swings.  I'm surprised Lower Moreland even went for Kerry.  It always seemed fairly Catholic and conservative to me whereas Abington/Jenkintown and Upper Moreland/Willow Grove seemed more liberal.  The state Rep in Lower Moreland is a Santorum-esque conservative named Tom Murt who knocked off a socially liberal Republican Sue Cornell in 2006 over the pay raise debacle. 

Agreed with all of the above.

Murt is my man.    As you know, he was my write in vote for Congress in 2008. He's awesome. Even though Lower Moreland (a big part of his district) is more conservative, his district is more of a swing/centrist district. Even though I wanted him in the 2006 primary, I thought he was going to lose the General. Hell, I didn't even think he'd win the primary (he ended up winning easily). He won the General easily, too. He was targeted in 2008 as well. He won by an even bigger margin.

I'd love to see him run for the PA 13 seat one day but I think, for the first time since 2004, that I'm actually going to like a candidate in the 13th in 2010. I like one candidate in particular but that's another discussion for another thread...for another day. 

Let me clarify, though, that Murt is certainly not "Santorum-esque" in his style of engagement. Santorum is polarizing; Murt is not. Santorum is a fierce fighter; Murt is one of the meekest, low key people I've seen in politics.

[Keystone Phil]

Great work, Nordstrand. What is the Kerry-McCain township in MontCo that borders Philly?

Living fairly close to there one explanation I have is a fair number of well off white blue collar workers from the city moved there swinging it towards McCain.  It also explains some of the lower Bucks swings.  I'm surprised Lower Moreland even went for Kerry.  It always seemed fairly Catholic and conservative to me whereas Abington/Jenkintown and Upper Moreland/Willow Grove seemed more liberal.  The state Rep in Lower Moreland is a Santorum-esque conservative named Tom Murt who knocked off a socially liberal Republican Sue Cornell in 2006 over the pay raise debacle. 

Agreed with all of the above.

Murt is my man.    As you know, he was my write in vote for Congress in 2008. He's awesome. Even though Lower Moreland (a big part of his district) is more conservative, his district is more of a swing/centrist district. Even though I wanted him in the 2006 primary, I thought he was going to lose the General. Hell, I didn't even think he'd win the primary (he ended up winning easily). He won the General easily, too. He was targeted in 2008 as well. He won by an even bigger margin.

I'd love to see him run for the PA 13 seat one day but I think, for the first time since 2004, that I'm actually going to like a candidate in the 13th in 2010. I like one candidate in particular but that's another discussion for another thread...for another day. 

Let me clarify, though, that Murt is certainly not "Santorum-esque" in his style of engagement. Santorum is polarizing; Murt is not. Santorum is a fierce fighter; Murt is one of the meekest, low key people I've seen in politics.

At least ideologically I heard he was in that territory.  I could be wrong.

I'd say that he's a standard conservative Republican. You'd say that Santorum-esque means far right. I disagree. Either way, Murt isn't far right and his style of engagement is certainly not Santorum-esque.

[Keystone Phil]

Bensalem being in one of the top 25 lists for obama is surprising.  I expected him to win there, but thats a relatively strongish place there (there is a fairly strong Republican party). 

Not anymore. Bensalem is quickly trending to the Dems. In fact, I think they not have the registration advantage. The DiGirolamo crew is worried...

[Keystone Phil]

Bensalem being in one of the top 25 lists for obama is surprising.  I expected him to win there, but thats a relatively strongish place there (there is a fairly strong Republican party). 

Not anymore. Bensalem is quickly trending to the Dems. In fact, I think they not have the registration advantage. The DiGirolamo crew is worried...

Thats right.  Forgot about that.  Well...I think the DiGirolamo name gives them a fighting chance at least.

The county GOP needs a new plan to win back some of its old haunts (its slipping big time in Middletown, though I live in a more democratic section of it than normal)...it lost newtown again...how long before the Dems get the 2nd county commissioner?  (That scares me).

Right. They need to move beyond the DiGi name. They're getting older and can't run things forever.

[Keystone Phil]

Chester, PA still has a Republican mayor and city council, while the city votes 80% Democratic for major races.

So it's either really good governance, or mass bribery. One of the two.

A city with a 27.2% poverty rate can hardly claim good governance. At least, not in the long term.

Helps that they have an institutionalized black Republican organization dating to the pre-Civil Rights era, of course.

Yeah, the latter must be the reason why they have a Republican Mayor and Council though I would have never guessed that they have either. Chester (the city) is a real disaster.

Even with a black GOP organization, I don't see how they have Republicans in control locally. The Mayor isn't black (as far as I know).

[Keystone Phil]

Great work, Nordstrand. What is the Kerry-McCain township in MontCo that borders Philly?

Living fairly close to there one explanation I have is a fair number of well off white blue collar workers from the city moved there swinging it towards McCain.  It also explains some of the lower Bucks swings.  I'm surprised Lower Moreland even went for Kerry.  It always seemed fairly Catholic and conservative to me whereas Abington/Jenkintown and Upper Moreland/Willow Grove seemed more liberal.  The state Rep in Lower Moreland is a Santorum-esque conservative named Tom Murt who knocked off a socially liberal Republican Sue Cornell in 2006 over the pay raise debacle. 

Interesting...do you know anything about the NJ municipality that borders SW Philly, which appears to be the only other McCain-voting municipality that borders Philly.

That's not in NJ, that's in PA. It's Tinicum, which is where the Philly airport is. The population is under 5,000. Although he has it as Obama-voting on the initial SE PA map, so I don't know whether it actually voted for McCain or not.

At first I thought it was West Deptford, NJ, which is sprawly and far away from any bridges across the river. But West Deptford voted for Obama, and on closer inspection the town you're referring to is Tinicum.

Yeah, I was going to say, "SW Philly bordering...NJ?" 

Tinicum is mostly the airport.

[Keystone Phil]

Chester, PA still has a Republican mayor and city council, while the city votes 80% Democratic for major races.

So it's either really good governance, or mass bribery. One of the two.

A city with a 27.2% poverty rate can hardly claim good governance. At least, not in the long term.

Helps that they have an institutionalized black Republican organization dating to the pre-Civil Rights era, of course.

Yeah, the latter must be the reason why they have a Republican Mayor and Council though I would have never guessed that they have either. Chester (the city) is a real disaster.

Even with a black GOP organization, I don't see how they have

 Republicans in control locally. The Mayor isn't black (as far as I know).

The mayor is black, actually. Or he does a damned good impression of it in photographs.

http://www.chestercity.com/mayor_butler.cfm

Oh, wow. I didn't know Pileggi was Mayor there before he was elected to the Senate! How the hell did he become Mayor? That's insane.

By the way, how do you know Butler is a Republican? I don't see it in the biographyc.

[Keystone Phil]

He has won re-election twice as a Republican.

So basically Chester has something that no other major American city with a majority African-American population has.. a functional Republican organization.

Very odd.